Author's Note: A love story and a David Korjensky story! Awwww!

"…uncharted planet," David Walter Korjensky III reported, into his thumb-embedded log recorder. He leaned back in his chair, staring at the planet looming ahead of him. "Class 5 civilization, looks like. Technology, but no space travel." He idly checked the monitors in front of him. "Lots of radio waves and transmissions. Yeah. Must have all sorts of tech."

He thumbed through some scanners on the ship. Rambling off the stats and atmospheric readings, without really thinking about them.

He hated this job.

Yep. Dave had been a soldier. One of the Pachoran Slave Cluster, a cold-blooded killer sought after by every self-respecting chevauchée group around.

Then he'd met a girl.

And now… as a direct result… here he was. No chevauchée group. No reputation. Just stuck working as a glorified cartographer.

He flipped some more switches. "Starting a descent pattern," he reported. "Let's see what this planet has waiting for us." Then turned off his thumb-corder.

Stared out the front window of his cheap-ass, second-hand explorer ship.

"Let's 'check out the local art and culture'," he muttered. Sighed. "As if I care."

There were, of course, fancy gadgets you could buy, back on Earth, to help you blend in with the natives on these Class 5 planets.

But Dave could never afford anything that flashy.

So he did what he always did; resorted to his normal stealth-creep.

Dave pressed the thumb-corder against his larynx, so it could pick up the vibrations, and he wouldn't have to talk out-loud. As he took notes on everything he found.

"Native inhabitants are basically large lizards," he reported into the thumb-corder. "Seven foot high, on average. Get back to you later on the physiological minutia, when I got more details."

He snuck out towards the center of the town.

"There are human-looking life-forms around, too," Dave continued. His eyes skimming the crowd. "But they're all in serving positions. Some chained up on leashes, like dogs. None of them are talking — bad sign." He gave a dry chuckle. "If I see the Statue of Liberty embedded in the sand, somewhere, I'll be sure to make the appropriate remarks."

Then chided himself for making a joke that probably no one would get.

Dave really did have far too much spare time on his hands, these days. Resorting to watching old movies, during transit!

He hated this job.

"Looks like the lizards are the ones with all the high-tech," Dave continued, sneaking off down another side-street. He took the lid off a garbage can, and peered inside. "Dietary preferences mainly centered around the lizards, too, looks like. I'll get a chemical breakdown, when I make it back to my ship." He scooped up a sample of the thrown-out food, then tucked it away. And went onwards, with his exploration.

Towards the next big street.

"Main mode of transport doesn't seem to be the car, here," Dave recorded. Stepping forwards, his eyes drifting over the vehicles cruising down the street. "They're more like… hopper cars. Like if a frog mated with a horse-drawn carriage. Internal combustion is definitely in, but more—"

Dave paused, just beside the street.

Frowned, as a cluster of lizard-people swept by. Their elaborate outfits flowing in the breeze with every step.

But that wasn't the weirdest thing.

"Okay, on second thought," Dave vocalized to the thumb-corder, "maybe my Planet of the Apes joke was more well-founded than it seemed. Despite having no association with Earth Empire, and our never having encountered this planet before… everyone here is speaking English."

And they were.

Everyone.

Since Dave had started this job, he'd grown used to wandering around alien planets and not understanding a word anyone was saying. They were uncharted worlds, on the edge of the Empire — no translator patch would be able to understand them, not yet. But… for some reason, on this planet… he could understand everyone. Perfectly.

He started analyzing the human-looking creatures the lizards kept as pets.

"Maybe those pets are real humans, after all," he guessed. "Could be this was a failed colony everyone forgot about, overrun by the indigenous population. Or… one settled by slavers who attacked a distant Earth colony, and shipped the survivors here."

He crept forwards, towards a cluster of human-looking people, nearby.

"I'm going to try to talk to some of them," Dave decided. Not standard protocol, he knew, but… if they were slaves shipped from some other colony… he wasn't just leaving them here with these alien bastards. Not for a second. "See if they can tell me where they're from. I'll try to—"

Dave stopped.

Speech leaving him in an instant, as his eyes lingered past the crowd he'd been about to approach.

And onto the group of lizard-women, just ahead. Their clothing clearly upper-class, frilly and lacy with little solar amplifiers stitched in, to help them absorb the sunlight. They were chatting as if they didn't care in the slightest, conversing in far-too-loud voices about parties and social niceties and other things Dave didn't give a damn about.

But each of them held a leash. Each leash lead to a human-looking figure they kept as a pet.

And one of those figures… Dave recognized.

Her blond hair waving in the wind. Her brown eyes large and sparkling. Her face soft and her cheeks dotted with freckles.

Dave would know that face anywhere.

He turned off the thumb-corder, abandoned his mission and his job and any stealth he might have had on his side.

Instead, he burst into the street, racing over fast as he could and grabbing Seo by the arm — to yank her away from these monsters. Whoever the hell these lizards were, Dave swore he'd…!

Seo spun around, to look at him.

Blankly.

Like she didn't have a clue who he was or what he was doing.

Butchers. They'd done something to her! Dave tugged Seo even further away, whipping out his gun and pointing it directly at the society-lizards around him.

They all raised their hands in the air — although their faces were all just as impassive as they'd been before. Like none of this even mattered to them.

Except…

A gust of shivering air burst upon Dave.

They were nervous. Perhaps a little scared.

"It's… an escapee from Vedhor, isn't it?" said one of the lizards, swishing her tail behind her. "I'd heard they'd been having trouble like this, recently."

The lizard woman who'd been holding Seo captive stepped forwards, slowly. "Just let Sunshine go," she said. Locking eyes with him, and Dave could feel a blaze of heat and command in that gaze. "Now."

Dave frowned.

What the hell was wrong with these lizards?! He was pointing a high-tech alien blaster at them, and they were just nervous?! Not terrified? Were they stupid, or…?

Or… was there something Dave, in the heat of the moment… had missed?

He swung around, to discover himself surrounded — on all sides — by advancing hoards of the humanoid servants. Their faces just as blank and empty as Seo's. Their eyes just as vacant. Dave managed to roll himself and Seo out of the way, as a group of humanoids threw themselves at him.

He used his own body as a shield for Seo, as he got back to his feet, swung around.
And started firing into the advancing crowd.

The humanoids didn't even cry out in pain, as they were hit. Just crumpled in on themselves, hitting the pavement hard.

"Dunno what they did to you, Seo," Dave muttered, clutching her to him, a little tighter. "But you're safe, now. I'll protect you."

"What do we have, here?" came a voice from behind him.

Dave turned, to discover a tall, uniformed lizard man, towering over him.

Carrying a nasty, but primitive, gun.

"A talker?" said the lizard man. "Never seen a talker, before." Another lizard man emerged, behind him, carrying a muzzle. "But I guess I'll leave that for the Vedhor scientists to figure out."

Dave raised up his gun and shot the primitive weapon out of the lizard's hands. Then turned to the lizard with the muzzle, steadying the gun…

And yelped, as he found himself knocked off-balance by Seo.

Who had stumbled — right into him — twisting around his upper body so that his shot glanced into a nearby tree, and he nearly fell to the ground.

Letting her go.

"Sunshine," called out the lizard woman who'd been holding Seo's leash. "Come back here, girl!" She reached down into a satchel, and brought out something that looked like candy. Waved it. "I've got a treat for you!"

Seo looked up.

Eyes fixed on the treat.

And, in a flash, raced back to the lizard-woman who'd called for her. Reaching out for the candy.

Dave, on the pavement, tried to fire, again — but found his gun missing. Reached for his second gun… but it was missing, too. By that time, the blank-faced humanoids were already swarming on top of him, tackling him to the ground.

And the uniformed lizard men were muzzling him.

"Seo!" Dave tried to shout.

But the muzzle drowned out all noise.

Seo frowned a little, as she snuck a peek back at him. But the lizard-woman who'd been feeding Seo the candy grabbed Seo by her collar, and yanked her away from Dave.

Hard.

"Mammalian hormones," the lizard-woman said to her friends, as she led Seo away. "I don't understand them. But my little Sunshine attracts troublemakers like nobody's business." She took out something vaguely resembling a rolled-up newspaper, and then smacked Seo over the head with it. "Bad girl! Stop chasing men!"

"You should get her neutered," one of the lizard women nearby offered. "Or next thing you know, she'll wind up pregnant."

The lizard-woman swished her tail. "That's our next stop, actually."

Dave struggled to get free. Just seeing Seo abused like this — he'd break all their necks with his bare hands, if he had to. He'd…!

But he didn't have the chance.

As the lizard-men in uniforms wrestled him into a van. Chattering at him in a menacing manner about "you damn strays" and "feral escapees" and "get you back to Vedhor where you belong" and a whole bunch of other stuff Dave didn't catch.

He never took his eyes off Seo.

Not even as they locked him in their van and hopped off with him.

Why hadn't Seo recognized him? What had they done to her? Dave didn't care. To hell with his career, his opportunities, his safety, his sanity. First chance he got, he was breaking out of here.

And rescuing her.